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By Kee Nethery — September 1, 2015

Why Localize My App?

When your app is a revenue source, you localize it to make more money.

Localizing your app increases your marketplace. When you increase your marketplace, you increase the number of people who will see and possibly buy your app. The question is whether the increased sales will pay for the increased cost. There are multiple free options for localization (check some out here), so if it is possible to localize for free, the only cost is your time. The alternative Mac app store, Kagi.com, looked at ten Mac apps available in five different languages. Adding 5 languages to an English only app increased sales by 15% to 49%!

When your app supports existing offline business customers, you localize to increase customer satisfaction and decrease customer support costs.

Many businesses (banks, stores, doctors, governments, etc.) deploy a free app to make it easy for their customers to use their services. The USA and many other countries have people for whom the main language of the country is not their native language. Translating a business app into secondary languages makes it easier for these people to utilize business services and more likely to remain loyal customers as they learn the primary language of the country.

What should you do?

The El Loco localization tool will manage localization of your app into two languages at no cost and there are ways you can get free translations of your app. Add two languages to your app and see what happens. The increased market could have dramatic results for your sales, customer satisfaction, and customer retention.

Which Language(s) Should You Begin With?

There are a number of factors to take into account when considering which language(s) to translate your app(s) into. This post will help you evaluate languages and make decisions about where to begin.